Without any question, this for me was the finest episode of Sarazanmai since the mind-blower of a premiere (which suggested that maybe it’s not a bad thing Ikuni only does a new show every few years, so as not to dull that impact). It also reinforces my strong belief that he’s at his best when he’s at his most straightforward, rare as that is. There’s so much that’s bizarre and fabulously creative in the visuals of an Ikuhara series that the narrative doesn’t need all the self-indulgent stuff he piles on most of the time – the experience is mind-bending enough as it is.
The other thing this episode shows is that Sarazanmai is at its best when its most earnest and frankly, innocent. For all his sexual symbolism and love of dark philosophical corners, there’s a cheeky and childlike quality he lets shine through sometimes, and we saw it in spades here. It helps that his protagonists here are pretty innocent on the whole (despite one of them being a murderer). That makes them quite at home with the goofy slapstick tone of the A-part of this episode, which saw the boys stuck in kappa mode for its entirety (and most of the B-part too).
In addition to being just generally excellent this was a milestone episode in several ways as well. We didn’t get any recycled animation sequences (they weren’t missed) for starters. It also saw the first direct interaction between the two main plot threads, as Reo kidnapped Haruka right off the street (if that was meant to be a really creepy scene, it worked). As the boys go through their kappa paces – eating cucumbers, sumo (an agonizing overflow of desire for Enta) et al – Reo puts Haruka’s parents to sleep and does everything but lure him into a van with candy.
Once Kazuki gets wind of this he determines to save Haruka, which finally prompts Keppi to share some details of what’s really happening between the kappa and otters. That is to say, a very long-standing war which the “Otter Empire” seems to have largely won, and the decline of kappa seems to be the reason they’re harvesting human desires now. But I’m not sure what sort of desires Reo was expecting to find in Haruka – it’s hardly a surprise that a trip through the underground otter desire factory turned up only love (which earned Haruka a trip to the shredder).
The rescue mission is more than anything just a good old-fashioned brilliant fantasy sequence. It’s gorgeously drawn and animated, full of memorable imagery, and generally thrilling. Anyone who knows Ikuni had to be a little worried when Keppi offered Kazuki the option to transplant his own shirikodama into Haruka, erasing any trace of his own existence in the process – but then, this is only the sixth episode. Of course Enta would never give up on Kazuki but it was nice to see Toi give his all to try and stop Kazuki from throwing everything away, and to help him try and save his brother. And in the end, Keppi does provide his assistance to do just that – which I frankly wasn’t sure he was going to do.
The funny thing is, even after all this fuss I still don’t really get why Kazuki was dressing up as Sara as a means to connect with Haruka. But that’s fine, the connection is what matters (that’s a big theme this week). Haruka in fact was feeling guilty about having told Kazuki’s mother never to came back, out of fear she’d take him away, but Kazuki never even knew about that. He just felt “outside the circle”, because he wasn’t born into this family – though it must be said, we’ve seen no indication that they ever did anything to make him feel that way.
There’s some rather meaty stuff in the epilogue too. The presence of the Ryouunkaku (Tokyo’s first skyscraper and an enormously popular attraction in Asakusa) clearly places Reo and Mabu before the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 – and, most likely, during it (it’s implied to have been caused by the otters). Mabu seems to have been critically wounded protecting Reo (as already hinted at), which has interesting implications for the present – is he a cyborg of some sort? Just where those two fall in the otter-kappa continuum isn’t exactly clear yet, but Mabu’s fate has clearly played a big part in pushing them to make the choices they’ve made…
Simone
May 17, 2019 at 9:41 pmIsn’t Mabu the one whose heart Reo reaches for in their usual Kawasouya dance? So maybe his wound here led him to get a cyborg heart or something? Maybe they share a heart in two?
Anyway, awesome episode, yup. Personally I don’t mind the repetition of stock footage exactly because it enables this specific effect – the moment it’s NOT used any more, you know shit gets real. Repetition has always been a strong feature of traditional narrative forms (oral ones especially, since it helped mnemonics for whoever was retelling the story), so I also like that parallel, which I suppose is at least in part why Ikuhara uses it.
TheYepMan
May 17, 2019 at 10:10 pmOh yes. I was bracing for this episode and boy, oh boy, it delivered SO MUCH.
Haruka is the best and most adorable little brother, and he doesn’t deserve any of this. He was feeling guilty about something that hadn’t even had a negative consequence (Kazuki’s mother already knew where Kazuki wanted to be, and if I were she I would’ve seen Haruka’s plea as a sign that Kazuki was indeed loved and welcomed in his new family) and wasn’t even mad about Kazuki pretending to be Sara.
As per Kazuki crossdressing as Sara, Enzo: The way I understood, Haruka was already a fan of Sara before the incident happened, so I’m guessing that Kazuki was doing that out of wanting to stay connected to Haruka, even if it was a little bit in a self-harmful way – it was an indirect connection based on lies and the feeling that Kazuki didn’t deserve Haruka as a little brother. But that’s what I got from it.
As for Leo and Mabu, yeah, it’s pretty obvious that Keppi’s attack against Mabu left him without emotions in one way or another. Which leads me to the plot point I’m most interested in: Leo’s interest in Keppi. If taken in a purely straightforward way, you could say Leo and Mabu merely want Keppi as a way to please their otter overlords… but considering the foreshadowing in the OP about Leo being in a similar position to the main trio in regards to wanting to reconnect with (in his case) Mabu, it might mean that Leo’s thinking of using Keppi for other purposes, like getting a Dish of Hope.
Guardian Enzo
May 17, 2019 at 10:40 pmYeah, I mean, that’s the pretense behind the Sara thing – but honestly it feels like just that, pretense. It seems very likely it was just what the plot needed, and that’s all the reason Ikuhara feels inclined to give. And let the amateur psychologists have a field day.
animealex
May 17, 2019 at 11:30 pmThere was so much great stuff this episode, that I don’t know where to begin. Let me point out just some bullet points:
– At first Keppi was enabling Kazuki’s desire for self destruction, but when it looked like the three boys where willing to give their all to save Haruka, who is in the end shown to only contain selfless love, (which also may have contributed to Keppi’s decision), he in turn gives his all to make it possible.
– It’s so endearing and sad at the same time, that both brothers think they destroyed the others happiness and blame them selfs for it, while unable to communicate about it, with nearly fatal consequences.
– Haruka being shown to be the more mature of the two, because he was willing to tell his dark secret to Kazuki, when he thought he had lost him forever. (He told his secret “Sara”, but now he knows who really gets the messages he sends to her.)
– Toi saves Kazuki in the practical way (sabotaging his suicide with a few well placed gun shots and knocking some sense in him) and shows us again, that he is the practical, down to earth guy, who gets stuff done.
– Enta on the other end saves Kazuki in the emotional way (showing him in the most poignant way possible that he has connections with others and is someone worth of love by giving him the band preserved by Haruka).
– Up until now the victims of the zombiefication process have all been frankly not so innocent and sympathetic grown-ups. The fact that the cops where willing to go after a little boy was very telling on how much sympathy they deserve in the end. And creepy as hell.
– The show itself is about some pretty basic everyday human stuff (desire vs. love; secrets vs. connections; how to integrate/accept these seemingly opposing forces while maturing/growing up etc.) yet through it’s ridiculous, raunchy and frankly fabulous presentation it makes this themes much more interesting and engaging while watching (and perhaps reaches some people who could use some reflection about the presented themes who otherwise wouldn’t).
And last but not least: That “wrestling match” was the lewdest scene I watched in a while and in the context of that show, that really is saying something. What should be my takeaway from that scene especially since it wasn’t another one of Enta’s daydreams? I mean I can ship it…ah, I mean think about it, yeah, think about it, but that doesn’t make things any less lewd.
Guardian Enzo
May 18, 2019 at 8:27 amAll of the things you say I agree with, but I think they also play into my point – these key is the straightforward earnestness of the material (and the boys). Even the sumo scene, ecchi as it is, is ecchi in a very innocent sort of way (if that makes sense). There are very few creators who can pull off this sort of balance, and Ikuni is one of them. That makes it all the more sad that he so rarely finds form like this.
I would also note that this ep was the second time Sarazanmai has reminded me of Tsuritama, and it’s no coincidence that it was the two best episodes that did it.
animealex
May 18, 2019 at 6:33 pmHere we have another one of the core themes of this show (communication/misunderstanding) in action. To clarify: What caught me off guard about the wrestling was not the ecchi part (although…well). It was the fact, that Kazuki instigated it (even though he apparently wasn’t turned on by it) and it played out in a fashion like Enta’s daydreams. Before this, my take was always that Kazuki isn’t interested in the slightest in anything else than friendship regarding Enta (whose arc would be getting over his one-sided crush) and now I’m starting to question this. Even though I see the “knee in the groin” as a rejection.
Btw. what I now really like about Enta’s situation, is the fact that nobody in the story gives a crap that he crushes on Kazuki, apparently not even Kazuki himself. Like Scampi said, Ikuhara just shows very candid, yes an adolescent boy lusts/loves another boy so what? Let’s move on to the important parts of the story. And even then, Enta’s “Stalker” acts are criticized by the narrative. Seeing this mature approach in all this fever dream of a wild ride is really something I didn’t expect when I started watching this show.
Bel
May 19, 2019 at 3:20 amWell, in Japanese folklore kappa loves sumo wrestling, so what Kazuki was doing was simply “embracing” his life as a kappa.
animealex
May 19, 2019 at 6:48 amAh, I forgot about that. That makes sense and answers my question. Thank you!
Scampi
May 18, 2019 at 1:33 amThoroughly enjoyed the episode! The chase sequence is great, no more words need to be said. The sumo wrestling had absolutely no meaning but it’s my favorite moment in the A-part. It’s endearing to see Enta so boyishly sexed up after the pandering tropes, of like say…Murata’s OPM. Ikuhara has a knack for portraying human desires candidly while a lot of shows try to be coy but end up just being tastelessly pervy. His shows are wonky more often than not, but it’s really quite the experience.
TheYepMan
May 18, 2019 at 6:56 amI have a few acquaintances watching this show and they were like “what the fuck is this scene”. I think it did go a little bit too far in the realm of “let’s laugh at the implied homoeroticism of men’s sports”, and these being teenagers did make people ask out loud “am I in a watchlist now”, hahahahaha.
Guardian Enzo
May 18, 2019 at 8:29 amLike I said above, ecchi in an innocent sort of way. “Boyishly sexed up” is a good descriptor – Enta is just a kid in puberty who’s nuts about somebody (who happens to be another male) and can’t control his flights of fantasty about them. Ikuhara is indeed candid about this sort of stuff and when he doesn’t fetishize it, he can find that rare balance that makes the scene work.
Yukie
May 18, 2019 at 10:11 pmI loved how they showed earlier in Toi’s episode that he had a soccer uniform hanging in his room, and in this episode, the boys literally save Haruka with soccer.
I was surprised that the boys went right back to zombie-hunting after learning what happens to them once the shirikodamas are taken.
TheYepMan
May 19, 2019 at 10:46 amWell, that is indeed a “wtf” moment, but considering that the kappa zombies are already dead people anyway, it’s kind of… whatever, really? I mean sure, we’d all like to be remembered after we die, but once you’re dead you’re incapable of caring about such things anyway.